pinched, ppl. a.
(pɪn(t)ʃt)
[f. pinch v. + -ed1.]
1. a. Compressed between the finger and thumb, or two opposing bodies; nipped, squeezed; shaped as if compressed; contracted at one part. Also with in, up.
| c 1530 L. Cox Rhet. (1899) 53 Thersites, with croked and penched shulders. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. i. i, Like the father of hunger,..with your pinch'd-horne-nose. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. ii. i. 51 He ha's discouer'd my Designe, and I Remaine a pinch'd Thing; yea, a very Trick For them to play at will. 1675 Lond. Gaz. No. 955/4 A Black Gelding,..a shorn Mane, pinch'd Buttock. 1836–9 Dickens Sk. Boz, Th. about People, Scanty grey trousers, little pinched-up gaiters. 1920 [see dock-glass s.v. dock n.3 7]. 1941 Amer. Speech XVI. 67/1 Avoid pinched-in-waistlines for teen ages. |
b. ? Castrated by ligature.
| 1514 Will of Busby (Somerset Ho.), A pynched oxe. |
c. Of a ship: Much curved inward above the line of her extreme breadth; also pinched-in.
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v. Housed, She is Housed-in, or Pinched-in too much. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v. Housing in, She is said to be housed in, or pinched. |
d. Of oysters: Long and narrow in form.
| 1890 in Cent. Dict. |
e. Physics. Confined by the pinch effect.
| 1907 Trans. Amer. Electrochem. Soc. XI. 331, C is the column of liquid conductor,..and P is one of these pinched contractions. 1951 Proc. Physical Soc. B. LXIV. 161 Just after the breakdown the discharge..is observed to contract into a narrow filament; the discharge does not stay ‘pinched’ but immediately expands again, and proceeds to oscillate. 1959 Daily Tel. 23 July 7/8 But, unlike Zeta, the pinched gas will be stable. 1962 Times 28 Apr. 8/4 The first photograph of a ‘pinched’ lightning discharge has been obtained. 1973 Kettani & Hoyaux Plasma Engin. vii. 206 Consider a pinched column of fully ionised plasma. |
2. Said in reference to the physical effects of cold, hunger, pain, or old age. Also with up, and parasynthetic, as pinched faced, etc.
| 1614 D. Dyke Myst. Self-Deceiuing (1630) 83 Pinched with famine. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. ii. 193 Pinched are her looks, as one who pines for bread. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxxii, Pale and pinched-up faces hovered about the windows. 1904 Daily Chron. 22 Oct. 4/5 Pinched-faced children whose under-feeding is caused by this kind of malnutrition. |
† 3. Gathered, pleated (cf. pinch v. 3). Obs.
| 1509–10 Act 1 Hen. VIII, c. 14 §1 No manne undre the degree of a Knyght [shall] were any garded or pynshed Sherte or pynched partelet of Lynnen clothe. |
4. Straitened in extent; small, narrow, scanty.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, cclxi, Narrower Fames In a pinch't Canvace. 1691 tr. Emilianne's Frauds Romish Monks (ed. 3) 34 Their Cells..being too mean and..too much pinch'd of room. 1894 N. Brooks Tales Maine Coast 94 A little pinched-up flower-garden lay between the house and the..river. |
5. Straitened in means or circumstances.
| 1716 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) V. 159 Yet he is not pinch'd, being very rich as well as very stingy. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xlv, Do you know how pinched and destitute I am? 1891 Baring-Gould In Troubadour-Land xx, They lived..in very pinched circumstances. |
6. Suffering from a pang, distressed.
| 1900 Mrs. Craigie R. Orange xxii, With a pinched heart she went up the great staircase. |
7. Of paper: slightly smaller than the normal size (see quots.).
| 1893 J. Kay Paper 100 Sizes of Papers... Demy..Post..Pinched Post..Foolscap. 1894 G. Clapperton Pract. Paper-Making 193 Sizes of Lined Papers. Pinched for 8vo Expansion by 14½ in. 1926 Paper Terminol. (Spalding & Hodge) 20 Pinched post, a standard size of writing paper measuring 14½ × 18½ in. 1952 E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper (ed. 2) 199/1 Pinched post, a size of writing paper standardized at 18½{pp} × 14½{pp}, but with variants still in use, also for drawings... For ‘pinched’ the same word is used in Dutch: geknepen, when a sheet is slightly reduced from the standard or normal dimensions for that size. 1962 F. T. Day Introd. to Paper vii. 70 An even greater variety of sizes is covered by these names by the addition of qualifying words—Single or Half, Double or Quad, Small or Large, Extra or Super, Pinched or Reduced. Ibid., Pinched Post..14½ × 18½ in. Pinched Post (Double)..18½ × 29 in. |
Hence ˈpinchedly adv.; ˈpinchedness.
| 1883 R. Broughton Belinda i. ii, The pear-tree..was pinchedly struggling into flower. 1871 Daily News 11 Apr. 6, I saw both boaters and bathers..and the like for pinchedness, blueness, and overwhelming miser, may I never see again. 1877 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. ii. 276 The pinchedness of the real world about them. |